Spicy Thai Soup

Male: What we’re doing today, we’re making some fantastic Asian inspired food and the next thing we’re working on is the soup. What I love, when I get Thai takeout food in my apartment in New York, I always get the soup. It’s really good. So I asked the chef how to make it one day and this is what he told me. This always starts out with good stock. Female: It smells incredible. Male: So a lot going on there. Now this is a stock, water, a whole chicken, now we’re going to finish the soup up with shrimp but I peeled the shells off because the shells have so much flavor, I don’t want to throw it out. Get your lime leaves, these guys are here, also a couple of thai bred chilies. A big knob of ginger and some lemongrass. I want you to taste this because this is the most awesome broth. There’s also a little bit of lime in there too. You’re ready. Light bulb went right here, look at that. Female: It’s so good. It is so flavorful. It’s got so many flavors. Male: This whole thing takes about maybe 25 minutes to cook. So that is cold water, bring it up, let it simmer. It’s awesome. So hand that pot for me and strain it out. Female: Quick is good. Male: And you see all the beautiful colors in the soup? You see all that? All that stuff is just amazing taste, amazing flavors. It’s got this big pot of very rich chicken shrimp. Female: Really, there’s so much in it. Male: So get this, this is bay – and what we’re going to do is finish the soup up. A little bit of fish sauce. In Thailand, they use fish sauce as a form of salt. A little goes a long way. So I’m going to add a couple drops of fish sauce to this. Just a couple. Female: So that’s your salt, you don’t add salt? Male: I’m going to add a little bit salt too but a bit, for the fish sauce, there’s also a depth, a low note and I will salt to it like that. A whole can of straw mushrooms, throw it in like that. This is going to go back in the stove top, turn it on and we’re going to take a couple of limes. I’ll split them in half, a lot of lime juice. Let’s give those a good squeeze. And actually fill in the soup as well so we extract some of that flavor and the skin. You want to take the shrimp. I’m just going to cut it in half and these are large jumbo shrimp, 16/20 size which means this is in between 16 and 20 shrimp to a pounds. Cut them right in half. We’re just going to float the shrimp and the hot stock and we’re going to turn it up and let them poach just like that. So I’m most excited about the wine too. What are we having today? Female: I think with this dish, we’re going to have our white burgundy and that will stand out to the spicier flavors in here but it’s also great with fish. Male: I love it, what are the flavors? Female: You’ve got tropical fruit so it will be perfect with this and you’ve got some nice oak to it so it’s a nice complex white wine. Male: I love wine talk. I love that. Female: You can really go overboard with this. Male: Sometimes, so get ready, we’re going to throw the – and throw that right on top just like that. So the soup is starting to steam up and the warm broth is starting to poach the shrimp. They’re beautiful right? I’m adding a few herbs to this, some cilantro, I’m going to pull this cilantro because I love that. I love to scatter it in soup. Also some Thai basil and this stuff is really great. Smell that, there’s really kind of deep rich Thai flavors, Thai basil. Female: It smells of basil a little bit but there’s a lot more there. Male: There’s a lot more to it, but if you can't find Thai basil, regular basil works just as well so we take the whole leaves and we’re going to throw them in just like that. This is our beautiful Thai soup, that’s it. Female: When do we get to have it? Male: You’ve got to taste this. It’s a good way to go out. Female: That’s so good and the addition of those herbs right then, that’s yummy. Male: Sensational? Female: Yummy and you know what they didn’t take that long, 20 minutes in the stock and to dothis, just throw it in. Male: It’s all real simple flavors, and it’s really rich. Female: Very fresh. Male: I love it. What do you think? Female: My god, authentic. Male: Beautiful. I’ll get you cilantro threads and nice pretty pieces like this to throw on top of the soup. Really simple, clean powerful flavors and this is soup from Thailand.